Mass. Boasts First Electronic Fingerprinting for Gun Licensing

Karen Testa On Dec 1, 2004
Source: Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) -- With a quick electronic scan of a fingerprint, gun shop
owners in Massachusetts will know immediately if a customer is eligible
to buy a weapon, using a system that officials say is the first of its
kind in the nation.

The Massachusetts Instant Record Check System, developed over the past
six years with nearly $7 million in technology grant money, will be in
place in all police departments and gun shops across the state by next
summer. It is currently operating in three shops and about 140 police
departments.

The system gives police and gun-shop owners instant access to updated
information about arrest warrants and restraining orders which was not
readily accessible under the old paperwork-intensive system.

"It represents a real quantum leap in public-safety
information-technology applications," said Public Safety Secretary Ed
Flynn, who planned to unveil the new system Wednesday at the Four
Seasons Firearms shop in Woburn.

"This enables us to make sure that the only people bearing arms in the
commonwealth have the right to bear arms," he said.

With the system, Massachusetts becomes the first state in the nation
with a biometric-based firearms license and sales application, Flynn
said. Biometrics are physical identifiers, such as facial photographs
and fingerprints.

Gun owners have long complained that the process of getting a license is
cumbersome and time-consuming, often taking weeks or months.

Under the old system, individual police departments are the licensing
authority. They have to take a fingerprint manually and paste a
photograph onto a gun license.

Under the new system, local police will still be the licensing
authority, but fingerprints and photographs will be taken electronically
and stored in the statewide system. The license will be produced by the
state's Criminal History Systems Board and fit into a wallet, much like
a driver's license.

Philip Mahoney, police chief in Woburn, one of the first communities in
the state to test the system, said one of the biggest benefits is
knowing immediately if a person licensed through that city has become
ineligible. Under the old system, a person's criminal history would only
be updated after the license expired, or if police happened to learn of
an arrest.

"Until he came in for renewal, we would not have had any knowledge of
that," Mahoney said. "Now it would be an automatic suspension."

That would also show up at a gun shop. For example, if a restraining
order is issued at midnight against someone with a gun license, that
license record would be updated. If that person tried to buy a weapon
the next day, he would be denied.

It also eliminates paperwork for gun-shop owners, who now have to pay 50
cents per form per gun, and alert the state of each sale.

"You hit the button. Before the customer leaves the store, the state
knows they purchased that firearm," said Carl Ingrao, owner of Four
Seasons Firearms in Woburn.

The new electronic system is in addition to a federal instant check that
is conducted by telephone before a weapon sale is completed. The state
is working with federal authorities to further streamline that process.

Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League, said
the state had not involved gun owners in the development of the
technology. But he was looking forward to Flynn's demonstration and
hopeful the system would cut down on the wait and paperwork for
licensing.

"We don't support licensing anyway, but it's a fact of life here in
Massachusetts," Wallace said, "and if you're going to mandate it, you
better provide it."